


The Best Listeners

by Fairylights_and_Stormynights



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, John is a Saint, POV John Watson, Sherlock Being Sherlock, Sherlock Is A Bit Not Good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-28 08:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11414475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairylights_and_Stormynights/pseuds/Fairylights_and_Stormynights
Summary: John comes back to flat after a long day and finds, admittedly, not the worst thing he has ever found in their kitchen, and given it's Sherlock he lives with he shouldn't be surprised. But just once he would like to find the kitchen table devoid of experiments and body parts and bones.





	The Best Listeners

John had had a long day. He had been dragged around London by Sherlock for their latest case. And then Sherlock had done what he always did. He had left John on his own in the part of the city that was furthest from the apartment, taking a taxi and muttering under his breath about bone structure and acids. That left John to try and call a cab. But despite hanging around Sherlock 24/7 he never had the same skill for calling cabs as he did. By the time John had finally made it back to the flat, Sherlock had solved the case and had texted him about how he was bored. 

John unlocked the door and walked into the flat with plans to make a cup of tea and write up the case they had just solved if he could maybe get Sherlock to explain what he had done and what had happened. And if Sherlock wasn’t in a talkative mood then he would go and get some food from the Chinese place that he and Sherlock had gone to after they had solved ‘A study in pink’. Then he would turn in for the night and hope that Sherlock would keep the experiments on the down low. But as he turned into the kitchen he was met with, admittedly not the worst thing he had seen sitting on the kitchen table that title belonged to the time he walked in on Sherlock experimenting with three separate human heads and several eyeballs. Although while it wasn't the worst thing it was still something that no normal people would leave on the surface that you eat off.

“What the... Oh Sherlock,” John exclaimed loudly in a very exasperated voice, we was tired and hungry and had spent the day being dragged all over London and now... 

“Why are there three skulls on the kitchen table?” John turned to look at Sherlock who was sitting curled in his chair. As usual, his flatmate and friend hadn’t noticed that he was talking or that he has even come in and was most definitely hidden away in his mind palace. John walked over to his friend and poked him in his cheek. There was no response so John poked him again, this time harder and with more purpose. And with a snap, Sherlock opened his eyes.

“What?” His tone was irate and dazed from just coming out of his mind palace. 

“Sherlock, I asked why there are three GODDAMN HUMAN SKULLS SITTING ON THE BLOODY KITCHEN TABLE!” John was yelling now, his patience drawn short by his flatmate's antics and the fact that Sherlock had no consideration for normal people’s habits. Just for once, John would like to be able to eat on the kitchen table without having to clear off some experiment or some kind of human organ or body part. He was so tired of having eyes in the fridge and fingers in the icebox. 

“Oh that, I like the dead, they’re good for conversation.” Sherlock said that the same way anyone else would say ‘Well duh,’ or ‘Obviously.’ ever the petulant child. 

“Good for...Sherlock, their skulls. They can’t talk.” John knew he we was talking to one of the world's smartest men and the best (and only) consulting detective, but he still felt like it was talking to a five-year-old who wanted to lug about all their stuffed toys. Sherlock may be a genius and could act as if we wasn’t one of the most ignorant people when it came to social interaction, he still was no better than a child when it came to common courtesy. 

“No, but they’re very good for conversation. In Fact, they’re the best listeners in the world. Nobody listens like the dead and nobody lets you think and come to a conclusion they way they do.” Sherlock voice still held the same tone but this time there was a sort of fondness in his voice as if he was thinking of all the times they had done that. His eyes looked wistful as well, it was the most emotion John had ever seen on the detective's face.  
“I’m finished with them now, I solved the case, I knew the stepmother was innocent.” The hunger in Sherlock’s eyes gleamed from the idea of the game. “If you want to put them away I store them on the mantlepiece,” Sherlock said it nonchalantly as if he was talking about a book. And when John turned to the mantle piece he saw two skulls sitting there already.

John wondered when it was the last time that someone, someone human and alive had given Sherlock the same courtesy. The same kindness that those skulls had given him. Just to listen to his mind work and not tell him he was a freak or act like he was different in the worst kind of way.

John sighed and walked back into the kitchen, shifting the skulls so their empty eyes weren't staring at him while he made the tea. Sherlock retreated back into his mind palace and seemed that he wasn’t going to move for the rest of the night. Residing himself to this fact. John, after looking out of the window and see the typical London rain clouds settle in and deciding that the Chinese wasn’t worth getting rained on; made himself dinner and went off to bed. 

As he lay down to sleep, John decided that he would listen more to Sherlock when he was deducing or just putting the clues together. While he always thought that his friend was fantastic and extremely clever. He couldn't think of the last time he actually properly listened to Sherlock’s deductions when they weren’t quick facts at the crime scene. Sherlock should have positive memories of actual people listening to him talk and not just people calling him a freak, and John was going to start the memories off. He resigned himself to be a better friend and a more positive link to people who weren’t as clever as his flatmate.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work so I'm not sure if it will be any good but I saw the prompt 'The Dead are the best listeners' and though it would be perfect for Sherlock.


End file.
